The present invention relates generally to product promotion and, more particularly, to the promotion of healthcare-related products.
The use of promotional items has proliferated in today""s increasingly competitive marketplace, where companies are constantly seeking more effective and new ways to market their products. In the healthcare industry, physicians and other healthcare providers often receive promotional articles from vendors of healthcare-related products, such as pharmaceutical products. These promotional articles often include xe2x80x9ceverydayxe2x80x9d items, such as writing pads, calendars, and pens that have promotional information (indicia) printed thereon. For example, pharmaceutical companies often provide physicians with writing pens having the name of a particular pharmaceutical product printed thereon with the hopes that the pens, when used by the physicians, will help remind the physicians to prescribe the particular pharmaceutical product.
Unfortunately, because of lack of distinctiveness, many promotional articles provided to healthcare providers often become xe2x80x9clost-in-the-shufflexe2x80x9d with other promotional articles. Thus, there is a need for distinctive, more effective promotional products directed to physicians and other healthcare providers.
In view of the above discussion, promotional apparatus are provided that are configured to demonstrate to patients and others how a particular pharmaceutical product works within the human body (or within other living beings). The promotional apparatus includes a base and a display panel that is movably secured to the base for rotational movement about an axis between a substantially vertical display position and a substantially vertical non-display position. The display panel includes first and second sealed chambers in adjacent relationship. Each chamber includes a respective transparent front wall and a rear wall spaced apart from the front wall. The first sealed chamber is substantially filled with a first translucent fluid and the second sealed chamber is substantially filled with a second translucent fluid.
According to embodiments of the present invention, a first set of objects is disposed within the first sealed chamber and each object is configured to ascend through the translucent fluid (i.e., each object is buoyant). A second set of objects is disposed within the second sealed chamber and each object is configured to descend through the translucent fluid within the second sealed chamber (i.e., each object is not buoyant).
According to embodiments of the present invention, the front wall of each sealed chamber includes respective opaque images. Each respective image includes one or more transparent portions through which movement of the objects within the respective first and second chambers can be viewed when the display panel is moved to the display position. According to embodiments of the present invention, an image is affixed to the rear wall of each of the first and second sealed chambers so as to be visible through the transparent portions of the respective images and so as to facilitate the portrayal of passageways within a human body.
Initially, the display panel is in a substantially vertical non-display position. To begin a demonstration, a user rotates the display panel substantially 180xc2x0 from the initial position to the operative position such that the objects within the first sealed chamber are buoyant and move upwardly within the fluid in the first sealed chamber. The configuration of the images on the front and rear walls and the transparent portions help demonstrate the movement of objects to a specific location in a human body. The objects within the-second sealed chamber are not buoyant and move downwardly through the fluid in the second sealed chamber. The configuration of the images on the front and rear walls of the second sealed chamber and the transparent portions help demonstrate a drug reacting with cells in a specific location of a human body.
According to embodiments of the present invention, promotional apparatus are provided that include panels configured to rotate in multiple directions. In addition, promotional apparatus are provided that include multiple rotatable panels.